David Roger is the founder and director of Solar Battery Group — a national solar and battery company with operations across Australia and multiple internal teams that don’t always cross paths in the normal working week. When he needed something that would bring those teams together in a way that actually worked, he found Urban Quest’s Melbourne CBD team building experience. That was the first year.
The second year, he came back for the Docklands experience. He’s already thinking about a third.
The Integration Problem at Scale
Growing companies face a specific and underappreciated team dynamic problem: the larger the operation, the more likely it is that employees who technically work for the same organisation have never met, never collaborated, and have no shared frame of reference for how the other parts of the business operate.
David named this directly:
“We’ve got quite a large operation and there are different teams within that operation. Getting them to integrate is hard in business — when they come to work, they often don’t interact with teams outside their immediate department.”
The solution Urban Quest provides for this specific problem is structural rather than social. By mixing teams so that participants are grouped with colleagues they don’t normally work with, the activity forces interaction that wouldn’t happen organically on a Monday morning. The competitive format — a shared goal, a time limit, a leaderboard — gives that forced interaction a purpose and an energy that a drinks event or a dinner doesn’t produce.
“We mix and match — people who don’t work together or sit next to each other get to know each other within the business.”
CBD First, Then Docklands
David’s first Urban Quest event was the Ocean’s Eleven CBD experience. The second year, he chose Questbusters at Docklands. His observation about the second experience captures something most repeat bookers notice:
“We did the city one last time, so this one was different. I didn’t realise Docklands was so big. It was a little bit different than last time but really exciting.”
The Docklands waterfront provides a completely different environment to Melbourne’s CBD laneways — open spaces, water views, and a different physical rhythm to the challenge route. For a team that had already done the CBD experience, the Docklands version felt genuinely new rather than familiar with different clues.
What David Noticed About How His Teams Competed
David’s most specific observation from the Docklands event was about the competitive dynamic between teams running the same course simultaneously:
“I like the whole proximity to other teams — making sure everyone’s running in the same direction is good.”
That detail — teams visible to each other, aware of each other’s progress, sometimes running the same stretch of the waterfront within sight of their competitors — is a specific feature of Urban Quest’s format that intensifies the competitive energy in a way that a room-based activity can’t replicate. Seeing another team ahead of you is more motivating than an abstract leaderboard position.
On What Makes It Work
David’s assessment of the format’s effectiveness was direct:
“Teams working together is the key. It’s not just one person — they really need to work together to solve the problems.”
The repeat booking is the most credible signal that this observation isn’t just positive feedback delivered in the moment. A founder and director who brings their national team to the same activity two years running, across two different formats, is expressing a sustained judgment about value rather than a single satisfied reaction.
“We’d definitely look at it again.”
His specific thinking about a third event: the CBD format for any team expansion — bringing new staff into the same experience the existing team has had — and continuing to alternate between the two routes.
Explore Urban Quest’s corporate team building formats →
Read about the Questbusters Docklands experience →
Read what actually changes after a team building event →
David Roger is the founder and director of Solar Battery Group, a national solar and battery company operating across Australia. Solar Battery Group has run Urban Quest team building events in both the Melbourne CBD and Docklands formats across consecutive years.
